[Rarebooks] fa: JOHN KAY - ORIGINAL PORTRAITS & CARICATURES - EDINBURGH: 1877 (361 Georgian/Regency Plates)

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with other 17th, 18th & 19th-Century English titles,  
auctions ending Monday, October 17. More details and images can be  
found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/arch_in_la/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

A Series of Original Portraits and Caricature Etchings by the late  
John Kay, Miniature Painter, Edinburgh, with Biographical Sketches and  
Illustrative Anecdotes. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1877. First  
edition thus. Two volumes; thick 4tos (29 x 23 x 8 cm; 11.25 x 9 x  
3.25 in) in original quarter morocco and pebbled cloth; 445; 504 pp.;  
engraved plates, with tissue guards.

WITH 361 ENGRAVED PLATES (1 folding), including several not previously  
published. John Kay (1742-1826) was a Scottish barber turned engraver  
and miniaturist who during his career etched nearly 900 portraits,  
caricatures and cartoons depicting late-Georgian and Regency Edinburgh  
life, high and low. While the bulk of the caricatures are of local  
worthies (nobility, clergy, politicians, officers, etc.) and  
eccentrics (beggars, chimney sweeps, street hawkers, actors, giants,  
idiots and "naturals"), also included are portraits of some of the  
leading figures of the time, including Voltaire, Hugh Blair, William  
Pitt, John Wesley, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, George III,  
Napoleon, the antiquarian Francis Grose, the balloonist Vincenzo  
Lunardi, and Adam Smith ("‘the only authentic likenesses that exist of  
the great economist": ODNB). Each plate is accompanied by extensive  
notes and commentary by the editor, Hugh Paton. A unique, charming and  
invaluable record of the social, cultural and political life of the  
time.

Bindings with wear to the edges and extremities, hinges rubbed, cracks  
to the spine leather of vol. II; interior hinges cracked but boards  
are secure; generally mild age-toning to the leaves with some browning  
to  the top edges, one tissue guard lost, approx. 5 or 6 plates with  
light scattered foxing, occasional touches of soiling and fingering to  
the margins; otherwise clean and sound, firmly bound. Front endpapers  
with the ownership signature of Arthur J. Tuttle. A solid, handsome set.